Naruto: Tale of an Utterly Gutsy Jinchuriki
by LandoCali
Summary: Naruto is an intelligent kid maybe even a prodigy, but with the way he has grown up mistreated and alone caused him to be mistrusting and quiet. Watch as he goes through cannon events with a different team, sensei, and best of all... not spamming shadow clones for everything. (though he will know the technique.)


Naruto sat on top of the Fourth Hokage's head thinking over everything he gone through in his life, now it wasn't a normal thing for a 6 year old to do at 8 o'clock at night. Then again the boy thinking was anything but normal, he had been granted with a brilliant mind that absorbed information like a sponge and calculated answers faster than most adults ever could, including weaker ninja. He had a maturity and sense of logic none other in his age had, he hid it well enough though because anytime his brilliance was shown at a young age the matron at the orphanage, who had kicked him out a few weeks ago, would attempt to beat it out of him. As he thought about all of the strife and hate he had gone through he briefly noticed the sun was setting and stood up to head to the apartment granted to him by the Hokage.

The Hokage was an interesting man in Naruto's opinion as he took interest in his well being, which in itself was strange. Nearly everyone in the village looked at him in undisguised disgust and loathing or they plainly ignored him as he preferred. He thought about the Hokage's offer to visit anytime he wanted and decided on a whim that he would take him up on that. Changing directions, he began to walk toward the large red building with the kanji for fire blazon on its front.

He would start training to become an official ninja in a few months when the academy started and he briefly wondered what it would be like to be around kids his age. Having never been allowed to join the other children in the orphanage and with all of the children who were taken to leave with their parents whenever he showed up at public parks had caused him to not have any friends. In fact he rarely talked to anyone and mostly just observed and thought about these things. He enjoyed sitting on top of the Hokage Monument and simply observing his surrondings even if he felt lonely.

His inner thoughts ceased as he realized he had reached his destination. Walking inside the tower he went right past the sleeping secretary going the top floor where the old man said his office was. Slowly opening the door and popping his head inside he found the man was tiredly going through paperwork rubbing his eyes every once and a while. Door creaked as Naruto pushed it all the way open and a soft footstep echoed through the room as he stepped inside.

The Hokage lifted his head smiling kindly at the child of his successor, "hello Naruto-Kun, how can I help you at such a late hour? Do you need something for your apartment?"

Shaking his head no the blonde child spoke, "you said I could come here whenever I wanted." He crossed his arms over his chest, "I want to know why you care."

It was a fairly simple question after all why would a village leader, one of the 5 strongest in the world, give a random orphan a place to live and a monthly allowance? But, the way the child said it and the intensity of the words and eyes struck the aging man hard. This was a boy who expected himself to be hated by all. The Hokage realized how badly he had messed up by putting him in an orphanage when a majority of Konoha despised the boy and the rest for the most part ignored his existence. Collecting himself the Kage answered, "I see no reason for me not to be concerned about seeing a young boy half starved to death on my way to work."

Naruto's eyes hardened at the man for avoiding the question and turned to leave, "If moving around the question is your only answer, I may as well not be here."

Hiruzen heard the last ounce of trust leave the boy's voice as he turned to leave; cursing his folly and the boy's intelligence he hurriedly called out to him, "Wait Naruto, stay I'll tell you." The boy stopped moving at the door but remained holding the door knob. Hiruzen sighed in relief and thought over his options and found himself in a position where he had to tell the boy either about his heritage or the fox. Both weren't particularly good options seeing as they both led to each other in their own way if he asked the right questions which he probably would.

"I'm waiting," the boy spoke impatiently annoyed by his lack of speech.

"I… you…" Hiruzen sighed and just picked the second option as the boy had the right to know his burden and his father hadn't wanted him to know about his heritage until after he became a chunin or when Hiruzen or Jiriaya felt he was ready to know. "I have known you since the day you were born on October 10th, the day of the Kyuubi attack," he paused hoping it would be enough to satisfy the boy.

Naruto turned around slightly surprised before settling into a chair, "Explain." the tone of his voice final and Hiruzen didn't plan on lying when the boy had already shown a great sense of what was the truth and a sense of mistrust in people. The blonde held the cards at this point and Hiruzen would have to deal with it if he wanted the boy become the great person he should be, "I want the whole story including why I am hated by everyone in this village."

Hiruzen sighed for the seemingly millionth time that evening and looked sadly at the boy, "Are you sure you want to know?" The boy nodded without hesitation and Hiruzen began the story, "twelve years ago on the day you were born the Kyuubi attack Konoha. The beast is made of pure energy and hatred is one of the most powerful things to ever walk the earth, with a swing of one of its nine tails it could topple mountains and create tsunamis. Officially as far as children are told today in the academy, the Kyuubi is dead."

Naruto's eyes widen in realization as he touched the whisker marks on his cheeks and blurted out in slight fear, "Then I am the Kyuubi."

Seeing the panic and fear in the young boy's eyes Sarutobi quickly stomped out the idea with a fierce, "NO!" He paused as the intelligent boy returned his attention to the man still slightly hyperventilating, "you are NOT the Kyuubi and never listen to anyone that tells you otherwise." He stood up and walked around his desk to Naruto and held his shoulders comfortingly, "the reason for Konoha still existing is because of you and the Yondaime Hokage. He sealed the Kyuubi into your body to save everyone, you are a hero and should be treated like one." His look grew saddened, "the yondaime wanted you to be seen as a hero but when I came back holding you with the seal still freshly glowing on your body, people came to the conclusion that you were the Kyuubi, its incarnate, or otherwise under its control. When I gave the official speech on the tragedy and explained it was too late, most already believed you to be evil and tainted demon." The man had tears rolling down his eyes, "I've tried so hard to protect you and help you all these years but I have been blocked by technicalities and the elder council..." the man let a muffled sob, "I have failed you so many times that I can hardly stand myself."

Naruto eyes were rather blank as he tried to comprehend everything, it all made sense though the hatred that followed him wherever he went, the eyes that glared as he walked by and the constant loneliness. He was reminded of the equally distressed Kage as he got wrapped in a hug, Naruto shuddered at the contact having never felt… whatever it was he was feeling right now could be happiness he didn't know, but the feeling was foreign and pleasant at the same time, "I'm so sorry," Naruto heard the man whisper another apology.

Naruto wrapped his short arms as far around as he could the larger man and felt something wet falling down his cheek. His hand reflexively wiped it away, he was crying, he hadn't cried since he was three when he had been locked in his room for a week for getting a math problem right and smiling happily at the matron. He had promised himself that he would cry after that but it kept coming anyway, the tears refusing to stay in his eyes. He snuggled his face into the man's soft robe thinking about how the man sincerely cared for him. It was the first time he had ever heard someone speak to him in such a caring and sorrowful manner and it was someone he wouldn't let get away so he mumbled, "I forgive you."

Naruto felt the man's arms tighten a little before releasing him completely as they both tried to reign in their emotions. "The Kyuubi? Where did it come from?" Naruto asked trying to change the subject not used to having his emotions run through his normally stoic self.

The age Hokage took a few more seconds to collect himself and spoke as the professor, "nobody knows where the Biju came from or why they exist in the first place, they are simply beings of chakra that have been around for all of recorded history." He thought briefly about Kushina but decided that was for a different day.

Naruto raised an eyebrow, "the Biju? Are there more than one?"

"Yes there are nine spread across the elemental nations, all of them are currently sealed inside of a Jinchuriki. A Jinchuriki is someone like you who has a Biju sealed inside of them," the fire shadow spoke with his voice evening out.

Naruto's eyes lit up, "there are other people like me?"

Nodding sadly the professor continued, "There are eight others like you." He paused not really sure if he wanted to continue but did anyway, "some are treated better than others, some go insane and others are relatively normal." Thinking of something positive he spoke again, "for example, in Kumogakure there are two Jinchuriki that are both praised as heroes in there country. There are two in Iwagakure that are treated with a sort of fear and grudging respect. There are two in Kirigakure…" the Hokage briefly thought, 'although one went rogue and the other started a civil war as the Mizukage.'

Naruto's eyes were rapt with attention, "who are the other two?"

The Hokage scratched his head embarrassed, "my spy network doesn't really know anything about the other two except for they are around your age, one is from Sunagakure and the other is from a minor village Takigakure.

Naruto thought over everything he had heard before smiling slightly, "Thanks for telling me this Ji-chan," the old man's heart swelled slightly at the affectionate nickname, "it means a lot to me. I have been hated my whole life and never knew why." Naruto scratched the back of his head and said with the exuberance only a child could have, "I'm not even mad at those people who are mean to me. If they think I'm a demon then I will just have to prove them wrong, I want to be like the two from Kumo and be known as a strong hero."

The Hokage was slightly relieved, after all it wouldn't be good for Naruto to become a ninja to a village he hated and it certainly would be saddening for himself and Minato to see that happen. "I'm happy to hear that Naruto-kun and I'm sure you will be a great ninja. After all you basically blackmailed me into telling you all of this."

Naruto rubbed his hand through his hair sheepishly, "Sorry about that… but I had to know why."

The Hokage merely chuckled at the cute child, "I understand and I hope you understand why I was hesitant to tell you."

Naruto nodded, "that was pretty umm…. Emotional?" The information made Naruto feel like a huge pressure had been lifted off of him and a clear path had been put in front of him, "I want to become the most respected and loved shinobi in the village," he paused biting his lip, "but I don't know how…"

The hokage smiled at his surrogate grandchild, "just train to become strong and stick to your ideals. People will eventually respect you for your values. When you become strong and protect them from harm, they will love. I will help you to the best of my ability, I will no longer hide behind my mistakes and look to helping your future." He looked down at the emotionally tired child who was now starting to have trouble keeping his eyes open, "I will begin to train you in secret tomorrow. I don't want to deal with the old bats whining about me taking on an apprentice, is that fine with you? Though Danzo would probably be pleased." the boy nodded, "you will become the greatest shinobi in history, even better than your father."

"Father," the boy mumbled tiredly before his head dropped as he fell asleep in his grandfather's arms.

Hiruzen laid him down on the couch inside his office, "I sure hope he doesn't remember that I said that," the man stated before returning to his work, he needed to do a bit more than planned if he was going to start training Naruto the next day.

6 years later

Naruto stared intently at his teacher and grandfather figure. The blonde had changed quite a bit in appearance although his personality remained stoic for the most part. He was tall at 5' 3"wore blue shinobi style pants, blue sandals, and the only time he really showed emotions was when he was with Jiji or at Ichiraku Ramen, a local ramen bar that he had taken a liking to. The stoic nature and the fact he could probably be equal to a elite chunin had the old man calling him the second coming of Hatake Kakashi, without a shinobi rule obsession. Naruto's speed was tremendous though the Sandaime never appeared to be surprised by the unnatural speed of his student, his taijutsu was very finely honed and fast but there was always room for improvement in that front. He was skilled with wind techniques as a primary ninjutsu, with a good base in water for a future secondary, he knew the basics of sealing and wanted to learn more but whenever he asked Sarutobi-sensei would say that someone else would want to teach him and knew more than he did about the subject. He dropped the questions after awhile realizing that the old fart wouldn't tell him who and instead used his time to improve and learn other skills. He had learned to cook for himself rather well so he could save some money when compared to eating out everyday. It also let him do something to relax a bit when he needed to unwind.

Naruto felt like he had stared at the old man long enough and ran through a few quick hand signs, "Futon: Hosenka no Jutsu (Wind Style: Phoenix Sage," Naruto called out the name of his first original technique as 10 separate shots of wind flew toward the Hokage who dodged gracefully around as they drove deep trenches into the ground. The technique was basically the same as the fire version but with wind, but even with the jutsu being based on an already existing jutsu. It had taken a good 4 months of hard work to get it to where it was and the blonde was still working on the speed of the wind blasts.

Naruto ran forward to engage the man in taijutsu and slowly began to gain ground on the Kage (who was obviously holding back) when he finally landed a hit only to sigh in disappointment as the now identified clone disappeared in a poof of smoke. He jumped to the side feeling the movement behind him and threw a few kunai in the direction for good measure. They were blocked with a swing of Sarutobi's training staff, after all Enma didn't particularly like being summoned for something this trivial. "Come on Naruto you can do better than that," the Hokage said teasing trying to get a rise from the soon to be ninja.

Naruto ignored the taunt and cover his kunai in wind chakra before charging at his sensei. Hiruzens staff gained a shiny texture as he add his own earth chakra to harden the staff before swinging it down to meet Naruto's slash. The weapons clashed against each other multiple times per second until Naruto was whacked in the jaw sending him back. Naruto flipped in midair ignoring the pain in his jaw as he ran through another set of hand signs, "Futon: Taju no Kaze Senbon (Wind Style: Mass of Wind Needles.)" hundreds of nearly invisible wind needles shot down at the Hokage who went through his own set of hand signs.

"Doton: Doryuheki (Earth Style: Earth Wall)," as the name suggested a wall of earth popped up just before the senbon began pelting with mini blasts of debris flying into the air, but the wall held as Naruto fell back toward the ground he heard another cry, "Doton: Yomi Numa (Earth Style: Swamp of the Underworld.

Naruto's eyes widened as the ground below him turned into a large mud trap. Thinking quickly he flipped over to fall head first with a kunai in each hand as he channeled enough chakra to slow the rate he would sink. The kunai drove into the swamp about half way before slowing with the chakra. Naruto took the opportunity to bend his arms and propel himself backward, over to normal ground. He landed and hopped back away from the swamp, "nice Jiji, I almost didn't get out of that."

The Earth wall fell around Hiruzen and he smiled at Naruto before poofing into smoke. Naruto eyes widened as he felt the cool metal of a kunai against his neck, "I win again Naruto-kun, though I am impressed. I didn't think you would find a way to counter the swamp. The control necessary for doing that in a chakra filled swamp is also impressive."

"How did you get behind me?" was Naruto's intelligent reply.

Hiruzen merely released him and allowed him to see the tunnel he had created behind him, "Shinobi always pay attention to their front, back, left, and right but often forget to look up and down which costs them their lives. Always be vigilant of what you can't see."

Naruto nodded, "Hai, Sensei." Naruto briefly thought about the battle and had a question, "Sensei what kind of clone were you using?"

"They were shadow clones, solid clones of the user created by me splitting my chakra. They even have the special bonus of getting the memories back after they dispel," said the professor who now held his lecturing tone of voice.

The knowledge sunk into his brain quickly and he raised an eyebrow, "then why don't you use them to do paper work, you could do more work and fully read through everything you sign?"

The Sandaime opened his mouth to begin talking, 'because…" The elder Hokage realized the scope of what Naruto had just said and realized he had wasted a lot of time in his life when he hadn't need to. He brushed past Naruto and immediate was at the remains of his earth wall and banged his head repeatedly until the now chakra less wall fell with a great thud.

The now depressed man turned back to his pupil with a large red mark on his forehead that made Naruto chuckle for the first time in over a couple of months. The Sandaime actually smiled fondly forgetting his previous disappointment in his stupidity because it was rare to see a true smile on his stoic student's face.

Naruto began to twiddle his thumbs slightly embarrassed at his own predicament, "Umm sensei… you know of my inability to make a regular bunshin so umm… could you maybe teach me that?" It was his greatest shame, being unable to learn the most simple, basic jutsu in existence. The blonde pouted as the older man laughed heartily enjoying the boy squirm which happened to be almost as rare as his smile.

"I would if you become a genin today without my influence," the blonde grimaced slightly because he wasn't sure if that was entirely possible, after all he had skipped over 3/4 the classes and used the time to trained instead. He had never shown up on a test day or a physical practice day which was kind of… not on purpose although his classmates took it as him being an idiot that didn't want to be embarrassed by his 'awful' skills. That combined with their parents telling them to not get involved with him caused most of the students to try and bully him. It didn't bother him at all and he simply ignored them, it was actually pretty fun just to watch their angered faces as they failed to make him angry.

Naruto rubbed his head, "Is that even possible?"

Sarutobi knowing his troubles merely shrugged, "I don't know, ask Iruka when you get there."

"I'm going to be late if I stay any longer so sayonara sensei," Naruto disappeared in a swirl of leaves leaving an amused hokage behind.

Naruto pushed open the door to his class to see most people staring at him, some even seemed surprised that he showed up. "So you showed up for once dead last?" said a civilian boy who often tried to pick on him.

Ignoring him and the rest of the class he went to sit next to the other person who didn't talk, Shino Aburame. They both had an unspoken acquaintance in each other and understood each other's body language pretty well. Naruto's attention curbed to the door way as he heard to two most fangirly girls in the class… possibly the world. They finally reached the door way at the same time and shouted in unison, "Ha, I win." They glared at each other and began to argue over who got to sit next to Sasuke as Konoha's Jinchuriki lost interest. He turned his head toward the door again feeling despite his rather bad sensory skills two Chunin sized unmasked chakra signatures approaching the classroom.

The door opened revealing Iruka and Mizuki who walked inside and shut the door. Iruka as head teacher spoke first, "Welcome to your graduation exams, today many of you will move to the next step of your journey as a Shinobi of Konoha. I wish you the most luck. Now as you may or may not know the graduation exam is worth 80% of your final grade and you need an 75% in the class to pass so all of you have the ability to pass…" he looked up at Naruto, "though some of you need to do better than others on the test. There are six parts to the test each worth 15 points and a seventh part where you can get up to a 5 point bonus for any shinobi skills you know that weren't taught in the academy including clan jutsu. The highest recorded scores are 82 both by the Yondaime Hokage when he graduated at age 12 and Itachi Uchiha at the age of 7 and the highest possible score is 85. The first part is a written exam on the History of the elemental nations, shinobi rules, situational questions, and famous past ninja and there abilities that made them so powerful. Then we will split into two groups half with the last names A-L will go with Mizuki and M-Z will be with me to take the next four exams which are a stealth exam, a genjutsu exam, taijutsu, and Kunai accuracy. Mizuki and I will explain more when we are taking the exams, after that we will return here and you will take you ninjutsu exam, receive your final grade, and hopefully a new headband. Any questions before we start?"

Naruto for the first time ever in his class raised his hand, "what do I need to graduate?"

Iruka looked down at his book, "Let's see… Naruto Uzumaki you currently have 1 percent in the class which means you need a 93% on the test to graduate which is 74 points. You should have shown up more often Naruto." The blonde merely shrugged not seeing a reason to worry. "Alright then I will pass out the test and if I catch you cheating then you lose 20 points from your overall score and you don't want that."

With that final word of warning he started handing out tests and the room became silent. Naruto filled in all of the correct answers with relative ease as he heard people around him groaning in confusion as they tried to figure out the answers. An hour passed before the test ended and they split into the announced groups. Naruto followed Iruka to the kunai practice area for the second part of the exam, "alright this one is simple, you get 1 point per target hit with 5 kunai and 5 shuriken."

Ino raised her hand, "but sensei that means there are only 10 points."

Iruka nodded, "that is true but it is still out of 15 points because if you throw more than one at a time you get more points, for example if you threw 4 kunai at once and they all hit you would get 6 points or 1.5 points per hit. If you hit 8 at once then you would get 12 points, the current highest score is 15 held by a Kunoichi from last years class that wished to be a weapons expert by the name of Tenten. Slowly each person was called up and given the 10 throwing weapons and most scored at or below 10 points except for Shikamaru who scored 12 on a rather lazy throw. "Sasuke Uchiha," several girls squealed as the boy walked up to the throwing line and was handed his weapons. The boy smirked as he threw 8 at once only missing 1 that grazed the side and then threw the last 2 for a total of 13.5 point.

He threw a challenging smirk at Naruto when his name was called immediately after him. Naruto stepped forward and took his shuriken and kunai, he glanced up at the targets before his hands blurred for a second a fact only Iruka noticed. Ten thunks were heard by the confused students, they hadn't seen him move at all and the weapons simply disappeared from his hands and appeared at the target. Naruto put his hands in his pockets not bothering to look at the two smiley faces of his creation that were now attached to two of the practice dummies. The class stared at him in shock not understanding how this happened, after all the never showed up to class so how did he get a, "15," Iruka said with a slightly surprised yet proud smile on his face.

A few more kids went with the only one of interest being Ino Yamanaka who also scored a 12 with a proud smile on her face that was quickly shot down when she noticed that Sasuke seemed perpetually focused on Naruto rather than her. Iruka congratulated them on completing the second part before taking them to one of the buildings that nobody ever went in.

"Alright welcome to the building of the third test which happens to be the stealth test. You will go in that door and come out the other," said Iruka as he pointed over at the doors on the right and left side of the wall. "You will lose one point every 3 minutes that you are going through the building. There are lots of different traps throughout the building that have loud bells attached to them, every time you set one off I will add 1 minute to your time. There are also 4 genin inside the building that will be on the lookout for you, if they see you then I will add 30 seconds for every time they do. First is…"

And so the names were called out in the same alphabetical order as people went through ringing bells and people set off numerous bells and took quite a bit of time. The worst being a civilian girl that obviously didn't train at all who set off 13 bells and took 15 minutes to complete with all four genin spotting her for a total score of 5 points which made her start crying. Naruto felt the slight urge to comfort her because he didn't like to see people cry, but stayed away knowing that if she wanted to become a kunoichi then she would have to change her mentality on her own.

Shikamaru was an interesting show because he didn't set off any bell and the genin didn't report seeing him, but he took 12 and a half minutes for a score of 11. Sasuke was called up directly before Naruto and had fire raging inside him that was just waiting to get out as he sprinted at his full speed into the course. He finished at the second fastest time on record 3 minutes and 23 seconds but he set off 4 bells for a total of 13 points just behind the Yondaime Hokage who did it in 1 minute and 49 seconds with 1 bell rang for a perfect score.

Naruto was called up and everyone watched him curious to see if the previous test was a fluke or if they really had misjudged him. Naruto nodded to Iruka who began the countdown, "5, 4, 3, 2, 1." Naruto ran into the room around genin speed and jumped to the ceiling knowing that his earlier lesson from his sensei was true, people rarely looked up or down.

He ran through the course at a very slow pace making sure he didn't set off any of the traps and was surprised when he met none… at all. Apparently they didn't expect an academy student to be walking upside down on a roof. He walked out of the door into the sunlight and Iruka clicked the stop watch and called out the time, "2 minutes and 11 seconds with no penalties." His favorite teacher smiled at him, "good job Naruto that is a perfect score again." Ignoring the stares and gaping mouths of his shocked classmates he sat down in his spot waiting for the next task.

Ino Yamanaka was the last person and she got through the course in 6 minutes with 5 bells rang for a total of 12 points. Next their chunin teacher led them into a small field where they passed the other group of students and held short but excited conversations about how well they thought they were doing or in many girls cases about how well Sasuke did.

They all sat down as instructed when Iruka began to tell the rules of the next test, "the next test is Genjutsu. You will be required to dispel a simple D-rank genjutsu within 5 seconds, every second after you will lose a point. I won't be doing this in order or calling your name to say that it is your turn so pay attention or you will get an awful score."

A few seconds went by before Iruka called out, "Kenshi 13 points." The boy smiled happily from getting a good score. This continued as people got scores between 12 and 15 before Naruto felt the chakra about to invade him and he dispelled it before it even affected him, "Naruto 15 points." Iruka looked slightly disturbed that he didn't know about his student's talent especially when Naruto was one of the few students he talked to outside of class.

Whenever Naruto didn't show up he would search for the boy and would only be able to find him if he was at the library reading or at Ichiraku Ramen. Otherwise he had no idea what the boy did, but when he asked about where he went rather than school the child remained silent. Training would explain this though, he must have been off training in one of the training fields rather than being in class.

Naruto did appreciate the man's concern, as he was one of the few people who gave a damn about him and Naruto considered him to be one of his precious people that he would protect with his life. Though, he enjoyed messing with him at times and they didn't usually talk all that much when they were in company.

Sasuke was the last one to be called out and he received a perfect score like most of the class did. Iruka ran through a short set of hand signs before hitting the ground, "Doton: Asuringu (Earth Style: Earth Ring)"

A/N: some jutsu are translated by google translation so no complaints about it being wrong because I won't bother to change it.

A 10 foot wide circle was raised about 3 feet high before it stopped growing, "this is where we will be doing the taijutsu test. Your goal is to stay in the ring or knock me out of it, the first minute you stay in you will receive 5 points and every minute after you will gain an additional 2 points until the 5 minute mark. This means you can get 13 points for staying in the ring and you will receive a full 15 if you can knock me out of the ring."

Naruto watched most of the spars with little interest in the average taijutsu skills that they displayed but nearly laughed his ass off when Shikamaru captured the teacher with his shadow jutsu and walked him out. Iruka couldn't argue with the point that he never said ninjutsu was forbidden which the next students used to their advantage by make clones to distract Iruka, it didn't work that well and most still got between 7 and 13 points with Shikamaru having the only 15. It surprised most of the students that the normally lazy Nara was trying and when a guy asked why, everyone laughed when he said, "troublesome, this whole thing is troublesome, but my mom is downright scary." Even the mighty emo brooder cracked a smile at the stupid reason, not that anyone but Naruto noticed.

It was finally Sasuke's turn to fight after about half an hour from the start and once again he got his own little cheer squad that he promptly ignored, not that Naruto could blame him. The following battle was epic… in the minds of the academy students as Sasuke and Iruka duked it out in a 'fast pace' battle of skill.

After about 3 minutes of fighting Sasuke finally struck Iruka with a solid punch to the stomach and then used Iruka's reaction of doubling over due to lack of air to kick him out of the ring. The girls swooned and cheered for Sasuke as Iruka got up uninjured and congratulated him for doing well.

Naruto was alphabetically next if you haven't figured that out yet. After he stepped onto the small earth platform Iruka held up a hand to signal the start of the match, "3, 2, 1 start." As soon as his hand waved down the blonde jinchuriki went through a few hand signs and his voice echoed through the air as a large, powerful gust of wind came from Naruto's mouth, "Futon: Daitoppa (Wind Style: Great Breakthrough.) The great gust of wind made Iruka slide back to the edge of the circle, where he stopped with the use of his chakra.

The brown haired teacher didn't get a moments rest because the moment the winds died down Naruto was in his face with a spinning kick aimed at his chest. Iruka deftly blocked the kick and decided to take it up a notch higher than he was supposed to. In a flurry of kicks and punches neither side trying at there full capacity and neither side gained as they blocked and deflected each others blows as they danced around the circle. Finally Naruto deflected a punch from Iruka but grabbed the offending arm before twisting and throwing Iruka over his shoulder where he would fly out of the ring. Iruka reached into his pouch and threw a kunai with wire attached to it to pull himself back in but Naruto appeared in front of him in a burst of speed before double kicking him in mid air straight at the ground where they both landed gracefully in a crouched position with Naruto still in the ring.

Iruka chuckled a little, "when did you get this strong Naruto?"

The whole class leaned in a bit wanting to know about the greatest mystery now on their mind. Naruto smiled for the first time any of them could remember… well showed any emotion really, "that…. is a secret." Most of the class face vaulted at the answer before collecting themselves, "buuuuttt, I might tell you if treat to ramen tonight."

Iruka oddly enough felt a pain coming from the inside of his wallet, but couldn't figure out how that was physically possible, "Fine, Ichiraku's?" Naruto nodded content that his bribery had worked. Iruka announced that they would go back to the classroom for the Ninjutsu and extra credit. He led them back to where Mizuki and the other students were already done and waiting rather impatiently.

The scared chunin stood in front of his class and happily said, "It's almost over and I'm proud of everyone I tested today and I am sure that Mizuki was equally happy with your shown skills." Getting a small nod from his assistant he continued, "The last portion of the test will be done by your self and everyone else will be waiting outside the room for there turn. This test has three parts each worth 5 parts you will do a replacement, a transformation, and a clone."

Naruto's eye twitched a miniscule amount before Iruka continued unaware of his student's plight. "Then you are free to do your other skill for a 5 point bonus. All of your previous instructors will also be there to judge you as is tradition. Shino Aburame, you are first so everyone else please go stand outside. Naruto gave his friend a nod of encouragement to receive a thankful one in return from his equally stoic peer.

Naruto and everyone else walked outside with quite a few people muttering to each other about his performance with the half that weren't there stared at him disbelief. Naruto sat down and pulled out a book on water manipulation much to a few clan children's shock, that wasn't something people did until they were chunin. People were called in and didn't come back out which meant they went out through the other door and that nobody knew who had graduated until they went through the test themselves. Sasuke's eyes narrowed at the blonde wondering what other skills he had been hiding, but remained quiet.

Naruto stared at all of his past 'teachers' using the word loosely, most of them hadn't taught him anything and two of them even tried to avoid teaching him. It didn't make a difference considering he just read all of the books the academy had available and expanded on them with his own mind. Naruto would prove their fear and hatred of him was misguided and that was a fact to the blonde.

He performed both the transformation and replacement jutsus perfectly when Iruka said, "Alright Naruto, all you have to do now is a clone and I already added five bonus points from your wind jutsu earlier."

Naruto scratched the back of his head embarrassed, "hehe um… I can't make clones. It's kind of embarrassing but all I get is a vaguely human shaped blob."

Iruka raised an eyebrow knowing that clones were the easiest technique out of the three due to the low chakra cost and little control needed, "I guess that is fine if you don't want to attempt it then your official score is a 80 out of 80, 100%." Iruka smiled honestly while the others seemed rather shocked and were quiet, "that is the highest score since Itachi Uchiha and is the third highest score ever congratulations." He tossed the pre-teen a brand new hitai-ate, "Be here in one week for team placements. May the will of fire burn inside you and Naruto… I'm proud of you."

Real emotions rather than the forced ones that normally broke there way through to the surface as a true smile appeared on Naruto's face. Nodding his understanding of returning for team placements he walked out of the other door in the room.

The local jinchuriki found himself inside the Hokage's office a few hours later laying peacefully with book in hand as he waited for his surrogate grandfather to finish signing papers that he had helped organize earlier. "Today was a nice day Jiji, I haven't just enjoyed myself in a while," Naruto said not looking away from his book.

"Does that mean you are going to start training less?" the hokage asked absent mindedly as he went through his paperwork.

Naruto chuckled, "yeah right, I'm only going to train myself harder and harder until I achieve my goal. I want to protect everything that is precious to me, that includes you Jiji."

The old man smiled not used to Naruto talking so much, "it really must have been a good day for you to talk this much. Well I'm done so I can teach you that clone jutsu as promised." He placed the last paper down into its proper stack before heading over to the cabinet where he kept the forbidden scroll of sealing. The Hokage opened the cabinet which happened to be empty, quickly he ran back over to his desk and pulled out a crystal ball and started searching. Naruto got up briefly wondering what was wrong before noticing the empty cabinet where that scroll was supposed to be and walked over curious to see if the old man's crystal had found its target that quickly.

After a few tense seconds the crystal finally zeroed in on the scroll and fed an image of one of the civilian boys from Naruto's class running through one of the forests with the scroll in hand. The boy stopped suddenly when a figure landed right in front of him. The boy looked rather scared until he saw who it was, "oh Mizuki-sensei, I just got the scroll and haven't learned one of the jutsu to pass the second graduation test yet."

Both Naruto and Hiruzens' eyes widened at the comment quickly figuring Mizuki to be a traitor and the boy in danger, "Naruto your first mission will be to retrieve the Forbidden Scroll and save Fuji Aroba. Your secondary mission is to capture or kill Mizuki, I need to go through the rest of the scrolls and files to ensure there haven't been any leaks." Saluting, Naruto disappeared in a poof of smoke heading in the direction of the traitor and his peer.

Fuji Aroba was having a horrible day. It started off with him failing to graduate from the shinobi academy and his parents being disappointed in him, his friends had celebrating their graduation while leaving him alone. A small ray of hope landed on him when his sensei Mizuki had shown up while he was sitting under one of Konoha's great trees and told him of a make up test that failed academy students could take every year. He done as he was asked without hesitation hoping to please his parents and become the shinobi he wanted to be. Now he realized how stupid he was when Mizuki laughed in his face thanking him for stealing the scroll and stating the stupidity of thinking there was a second test. Having finished mocking the child Mizuki said something about not needing a witness before chucking a huge windmill shuriken. Fuji closed his eyes waiting for his death, happy to end the shame he had brought on his family and himself… after a few seconds Fuji didn't feel any pain and slowly opened his eyes.

There standing in front of him holding the windmill shuriken outward was a person he knew, seeing the spiky blonde hair that only one person in Konoha had and he voiced his confusion, "Naruto?"

The person didn't react and merely stared at the traitorous teacher quietly observing him as the weapon hit the ground with an audible clank. Mizuki's smile grew as he realized who had come, "haha how ironic, I originally planned to have you steal the scroll but imagine my surprise when you ended up passing. I had to change all of my plans and I wouldn't even get to kill the demon." The man's smile grew larger, "but, you came anyway how thoughtful of you. Now prepare to die both of you." The man threw a handful of kunai and shuriken at Naruto who stayed put not wanting his former classmate to get hit.

Fuji watched wide eyed as Naruto stood directly in front of him ready to take the blow and he questioned his past action against the blonde, "My mom always told me to stay away from him and that he was a bad child. I used to always make fun of him with everyone else… so why."

The last part was audible enough for Naruto to hear and he turned his head slightly at smirked, "because I am." He snatched one of the flying kunai inches away from his chest and started deflecting the rest of the thrown weapons careful to not let any of the flying weapons hit Fuji. When the last one hit the bare ground Naruto added, "and because I can."

Mizuki sneered at the Kyuubi brat obviously not expecting such talent from the young Jinchuriki, "do you really think you can beat me brat, I am a chunin and you are barely a genin." Mizuki launched himself at the pair ready to strike down Naruto with the kunai in his hand.

Mizuki seemed rather slow to Naruto whether it be because of his own inherent quickness, that the man lost a step while being a teacher, or just wasn't a very good chunin he didn't know. But he simply redirected Mizuki's arm and gave him a round house kick to the stomach sending the man flying backward. He flew into a tree back first and opened his mouth in pain. Naruto took the opportunity to say, "Fuji take the scroll back to Hokage-sama you won't be in trouble, he already knows what is happening."

The civilian boy nodded and scrambled off saying, "thank you Naruto-san, I won't forget this." Naruto smiled, he was already starting to make his dream come true.

Mizuki glared at Naruto with unrivaled hatred, "don't count me out yet demon, I'm just getting started." With that said the man ran through a set of hand signs that Naruto recognized as the grand fireball jutsu. A decent sized fireball soared in the air before crashing down straight on the spot Naruto was standing. Mizuki smiled as he stared at the flaming ground, "I did it, I killed it."

Naruto was having fun, he would admit it. He stood a foot behind Mizuki with a kunai pressed lightly, unnoticeably against the man's back, he put his arm around the man's neck and dug the kunai deep enough against the flak jacket for the traitor to feel. He couldn't help but ask, "who did you kill Sensei?"

The man stiffened as if struck by lightning and remained quiet for a few moments before laughing like a mad man, "You think that you won? I still have one last trump card. Didn't you ever want to know why everyone hates you and ignores you huh? Well I'll tell you anyway, twelve years ago when the Kyuubi attacked Konoha it wasn't killed by the Yondaime, it was sealed into a baby. You are that baby and you are the Nine-Tailed Fox."

Naruto briefly wondered how devastating that would have been if he hadn't known beforehand but he laughed into the man's ear, "how funny, you think you could emotionally damage me long enough for you to kill me. I know about the Kyuubi and have known for quite some time. You say I am a demon yet you also say the Yondaime sealed into me, you contradict your own logic." Naruto snorted not understanding the idiocy of people, "you know maybe I can be a demon when I want to be. I was going to kill you and move on, but now I think you can go to Ibiki because he would love your company." The man visibly paled before trying to break free. Naruto dug the kunai into the man's back far enough that it broke skin causing him to stop, "good night Mizuki-sensei." The man slumped as the blonde Kyuubi Jinchuriki chopped his neck.

A week later Naruto was once again sitting inside of an Academy classroom though this time was to find out what team he was on. His Jiji had refused to tell him who was on his team and who his sensei would be. Naruto figured that the old jerk just wanted to annoy him for a small prank he had pulled when he found out what was in the little orange book the Hokage always read. Let it forever be known that the Sandaime Hokage who was known as a god amongst shinobi was a pervert who could be knocked out by the newly labeled forbidden jutsu, the Sexy Jutsu. The idea was laughable yet Naruto believed it could distract any man, save Sasuke and his I don't like girls attitude.

Suddenly there was a large crash though the window and a person wearing a large tan trench coat along with lightly purple hair. Everyone turned to the strange woman, several boys found themselves staring a bit lower than her face because of the view her open trench coat gave. She gave a little flourish and a sexy smirk before saying with utmost confidence, "I'm sexy, single and the one and only Anko Mitarashi. I'm here for team 5 and will be your Jonin sensei." Only receiving a stunned expression from most of the class she turned to Iruka and asked, "So which ones are my brats? I forgot to ask."

Iruka sighed and rubbed his temple, "erm, you're a bit early Anko-san. I haven't announced the teams yet. You were supposed to come after I announced the teams and everyone had lunch with there teammates"

She merely brushed off the answer, "so tell them who is on my team and I will take the brats and go eat lunch with them. What's the problem?"

Not seeing the reason not to just go with it Iruka looked down on his list and called out, "Alright then team 5 will consist of Shikamaru Nara."

The boy's remained resting his head against his desk but a quiet, "troublesome," was heard within the class.

Naruto expected the next name to be either Ino or Chouji for a reformation of the Ino-Shika-Cho team but was wrong when Iruka stated, "Ame Kozuki." Naruto remembered the girl, she had originally been a Sasuke fangirl like most of the to-be Kunoichi until last year when she suddenly became very quiet and unsocial. She would only speak when spoken to and had been one of the more skilled students in the class after her change. He had no idea what had caused the girl to change but was glad she had changed because she would be less likely to die that way. Ame turned to Shikamaru and gave a shy smile. Shikamaru nodded back at her apparently accepting her as a teammate.

"And Naruto Uzumaki," Iruka finished. Naruto hummed as thought over his team; they had three intelligent kids, a Nara that would be good for trapping and support, Ame who had the foundation to become any type of Kunoichi she wanted and be good at it, and himself. All three of them were loners, well except Shikamaru who regularly hung out with Chouji. He smiled at both of them happy at his chosen team. Both were surprised by the show of emotion but found themselves smiling back. "This is obviously your sensei, Anko Mitarashi. I enjoyed having all three of you as students and for the last time I will say, you are excused."

All three genin stood up and walked to the front where their new sensei had a creepy smile on her face. When they reached her she wrapped them all in a big hug, "look at my three new torture toys… were going to have lots of fun together." With that slightly disturbing sentence all four of them disappeared as Anko shunshinned with them in tow.

When they finally stopped Shikamaru and Ame were both were on the ground gagging slightly, not used to the feeling that a shunshin gave while Naruto merely stood there having gotten over the effects when he was eight years old. Anko looked over at the standing Genin and said appreciatively, "well I got one genin with a stomach. Speaking of stomachs, let's go the dango is waiting."

She mouth salivated as walked into the restaurant forgetting about helping her two downed students. Naruto extended his arms to his new teammates and they grasped his hands as he lifted them up. They were still a bit wobbly so he helped them inside, "I felt the same the first time I did a shunshin. It will go away after you do it a few times." They both gave him an appreciative glance as he helped them inside to find their teacher.

All three of them crammed into of booth while their slightly crazy sensei sat across from them already smacking her lips from having finished one of her dango, "so you three introduce yourselves… Actually I'll go first. My name is Anko Mitarashi, I used to work in the torture and interrogation department before the Hokage made me your sensei. I like snakes, blood, and dango with red bean paste. I dislike traitors and idiots. My hobby is to torture traitors and going to training ground 44. My dream is to kill a certain snake. I look up to Sandaime-sama. That's I'm going to tell you." She pointed at the Nara, "you next pineapple head."

Shikamaru muttered something that was almost certainly a complaint before saying, "I'm Shikamaru Nara, the clan heir of the Nara. I like looking up at clouds, shogi, and sleep. I dislike troublesome people, when people wake me up, and work. My dream is to grow up an average ninja, marry a regular woman who isn't too pretty or ugly, have two children first a girl then a boy, see my son become a successful ninja, my daughter marry and then die of old age before my wife. I look up to my father I suppose, though I would have married a less troublesome woman."

Anko stared at him before saying, "Lazy ass, if you dream to be average then you will die young." She turned to Ame who gulped nervously, "you next girly."

Ame swallowed a piece of dango she was chewing on before opening her mouth, "I'm Ame Kozuki and I like Konoha, plants, making friends, and um… mint ice cream. I dislike Iwagakure and waiting for people when they're late. My hobbies are training and gardening. My dream is to become a jonin to make my parents proud and to avenge my father by killing Deidara the Iwa bomber. The person I look up to is Tsunade"

Anko whistled, "Tough dream that's an S-class shinobi you want to kill, but the great Anko-sama will help you. Lastly, we have whisker face."

Naruto snorted, "I'm Naruto Uzumaki. I like training, learning, and cooking. I dislike when people assume things that aren't true and bad food. My hobbies are reading and working out. The people I look up to are all of the Hokage and Kirabi of Kumogakure." All three of them stared at Naruto not quite understanding the last one, "My dream is to be Konoha's version of Kirabi and be a strong protector."

Anko, like a light bulb went off in her head as she recognized the name and understood, "so then you know about that already?" Seeing Naruto nod back she said, "I see then, that's a good dream. In fact you all have great dreams." She deadpanned at Shikamaru who merely yawned tiredly, "well two of you do, but we'll fix your laziness in the months to come."

All three of them felt a shudder go down their spine at the tone, including Naruto. "Do we not have another test?" Naruto asked curiously.

Anko shrugged, "I guess I was supposed to give you another test… but I think I'll just pass you guys. Our training will be your test, if you quit then you're out so be prepared for Anko's five month training of DOOM." She took pleasure in seeing the fearful faces of both Shikamaru who muttered his catchphrase and Ame who looked determined yet scared. Naruto on the other hand held the same expression decided she would have to go extra hard on him, "tomorrow we will do ten missions of the D-rank so we don't have to do any of those lame ass missions after the training." They finished their dango in a comfortable silence because Anko happened to be more focused on her dango than them and they were quiet enough to keep it that way.

The next day was decidedly the most boring, awful day in Naruto's life, he had expected D-ranks to be easy but did not expect them to be chores that he could have done and did do when he was five. Seriously what kind of missions involved walking dogs, catching runaway cats, painting fences, cleaning public areas and grooming people's prissy pets. The fact that each task took almost an hour combined with the fact that they did ten in one day… without any breaks was hell in itself. It didn't help that the whole time Anko just followed them snickering at their misfortune, like when Shikamaru ended up having dog crap smeared across his shirt and face, Ame got a mouth full of trash when she fell headfirst into a large garbage bin while chasing the evil cat Tora, or when Naruto got an extra set of whiskers on his forehead and right cheek from the same hellcat.

Over all it was a bad day but the whole team had to admit that working together on something this irritating had brought them a little closer together and when it was finally over they all, including Naruto and Shikamaru, cheered out loud for being done with those god-awful missions for life. Anko gave them a sarcastic congratulation before telling them Anko's five month training of DOOM would begin the next morning at 8 o'clock training field 44 and that they would not be returning home until the training was finished or they quit being Shinobi.

All three of them showed up at eight the next day in front of the fenced off training ground number 44. Shikamaru, noticing the sign that read 'The Forest of Death' in bold print caused the shadow wielder to groan and say, "troublesome."

Ame looked rather awkward, not sure whether or not to start a conversation with her two new teammates. Naruto simply read the list of dangerous creatures that was on the sign just so he would know for reference. Ame finally decided to speak up, "so… what do you guys think of Anko-sensei?"

"She's troublesome," (if you don't know who said this then you are somewhat retarded.)

Naruto looked at his female teammate, "she seems like a strong Kunoichi that generally wants to make us the best we can be… though she seems to have a bit of a sadistic way of going about it. I think she will be nicer when she gets to know us better."

The girl smiled at the thought, she hoped they would all become as close as her father had been with his teammates. She remembered Naruto's introduction and the Kumo ninja he revered and asked, "So Naruto if you don't mind me asking who is this Kirabi person you look up to?"

Naruto glanced over at her and then to where he knew there sensei was hiding surprising the woman who didn't think she would be found even if she wasn't fully hiding herself, "Kirabi is a Jonin in Kumogakure who is revered as a hero. We are brothers of circumstance meaning we have the same… well I wouldn't call it a burden more of a setback in society and he overcame it. I wish to do the same in Konoha, I also want sensei to stop watching us from that tree."

His head fully turned to the tree that Anko was hiding when she jumped out, "you're pretty good kid, the Hokage said you would be but I didn't take his word for it. Seems like I was mistaken. Anyway, this is my home away from home training ground 44 also known as The Forest of Death. It is filled with all sorts of deadly plant, insects, animals and other fun things. For the next five months I'm going to train you into the ground in everything you need to know; chakra control, survival skills, stealth, camping skills, taijutsu, ninjutsu, how to break out of genjutsu, and anything else. Any questions? No, good then we can get started now follow me."

The next five months of training would be the beginning of one of the most unstoppable teams since the Sannin, it was the start of another Konoha Legend.


End file.
